[NYTr] Brits' Own Gonzo Scandal: AG advised Army to deny "detainees" full legal protection Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 04:34:38 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Independent - May 29, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2591496.ece Human rights in Iraq: a case to answer Revealed: How Lord Goldsmith advised Army chiefs to deny detainees 'full' legal protection By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is facing accusations that he told the Army its soldiers were not bound by the Human Rights Act when arresting, detaining and interrogating Iraqi prisoners. Previously confidential emails, seen by The Independent, between London and British military head-quarters in Iraq soon after the start of the war suggest Lord Goldsmith's advice was to adopt a "pragmatic" approach when handling prisoners and it was not necessary to follow the " higher standards" of the protection of the Human Rights Act. That, according to human rights lawyers, was tantamount to the Attorney General advising the military to ignore the Human Rights Act and to simply observe the Geneva Conventions. It was also contrary to advice given by the Army's senior lawyer in Iraq, who urged higher standards to be met. Today, rights groups and experts in international law will call on the Government to disclose Lord Goldsmith's legal opinion, which they say could have helped create a culture of abuse of Iraqis by British soldiers. Last month, the first British soldier convicted of a war crime was jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army after being convicted of mistreating Iraqi civilians, including the hotel worker Baha Mousa, who died of his injuries at the hands of British soldiers. In 2005, three British soldiers were jailed by a court martial in Germany after "trophy" photographs emerged, showing Iraqi detainees being abused at an aid centre called Camp Bread Basket. There are about 60 more allegations of abuse being prepared for legal claims by rights groups. Last week, Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights wrote to the Government to ask for an "explanation" about the evidence of torture in the Baha Mousa court martial. Andrew Dismore MP, chair of the committee, said: "We have asked the Ministry of Defence to explain what appear to be stark inconsistencies in the evidence presented to our committee about the use of inhuman and degrading interrogation techniques prohibited as long ago as 1972." But emails sent just after the invasion indicate Lord Goldsmith's belief that British soldiers in Iraq were not bound by the Human Rights Act. The documents also show a wide differing of opinion between him and Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the Army's most senior legal adviser on the ground, who wrote to say he felt "the ECHR would apply" to troops in Iraq. On one occasion, Rachel Quick, the legal adviser to Permanent Joint Headquarters who had regularly sought and been given guidance from Lord Goldsmith on the treatment of Iraqi prisoners, wrote to Colonel Mercer giving her interpretation of the Attorney General's advice. His view, she said, "was that the HRA was only intended to protect rights conferred by the Convention and must look to international law to determine the scope of those rights". Ms Quick went on say that the advice of the Attorney General, supported by Professor Christopher Greenwood [the barrister who advised Lord Goldsmith on the legality of the war], was that, in the circumstances, the HRA did not apply. "For your purposes," she wrote, "I would suggest this means no requirement for you to provide guidance on the application of the HRA. I hope this is clear." Ms Quick, who in November 2003, was appointed OBE, added: "With regard to the detention of civilians - I will look at your documents in more detail and discuss with FCO, MoD legal advisers. Although my initial thoughts are you are trying to introduce UK procedures to a Geneva Convention IV context. Whilst this may be the perfect solution it may not be the pragmatic solution. Again we raised this issue with the AG and got a helpful steer on the procedures. I'll aim to try to produce guidance, taking into account their advice on the detention of civilians." Such were the concerns of legal advisers on the ground over the Attorney General's views that the MoD arranged for the senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office, Gavin Hood, to visit Permanent Joint Headquarters to settle any worries. Crucially, the emails make clear Lord Goldsmith's legal opinion was not shared by Colonel Mercer, who contacted his superiors in London to ask for guidance after he had witnessed the hooding of 40 Iraqis at a British PoW camp in March. The men were all forced to kneel in the sun and had their hands cuffed behind their backs. Worried this could leave the soldiers vulnerable to prosecutions, he told the MoD that in his view soldiers should behave in accordance with the "higher standard" of the Human Rights Act. But the response from the military's Permanent Joint Headquarters in Qatar was that Lord Goldsmith had told the MoD the human rights law did not apply and soldiers should simply observe the Geneva Conventions. When Colonel Mercer said he disagreed with the Government's most senior law officer he was told that "perhaps you should put yourself up as the next Attorney General". Colonel Mercer also asked for a British judge to be flown out to oversee the procedures for the detention of Iraqi prisoners, but this also was blocked at a high level. Colonel Mercer's interpretation of the law has since proved correct. Thirty months after he first raised his concerns during the Iraq conflict, the Court of Appeal ruled that British soldiers were bound by the Human Rights Act, which bans torture or degrading of prisoners. The emails, part of court documents being prepared to support a judicial review in the High Court this year, reveal considerable disquiet among the military about the Attorney General's advice. The documents show that as early as March 2003, the International Committee of the Red Cross had begun investigating complaints of possible war crimes by British soldiers at the same PoW camp in south-east Iraq that had prompted Colonel Mercer's original intervention. The Government was so worried about this that it flew out a political adviser from London to address the Red Cross's concerns about hooding and other practices. International law * Torture is defined by international law as any threat or use of severe pain, physical or mental, against an individual with the intention of obtaining a confession or other information. Under the UN Convention Against Torture, 40 states - including Britain - have agreed not to engage in such practices. During military conflict the third and fourth Geneva Conventions protect prisoners of war and civilians who are held by soldiers. Torture is also defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court, which describes it as the unlawful infliction of severe pain. Many of the incidents of abuse committed by British soldiers on Iraqi civilians may fall outside the strict definition of torture under international law. But under the European Convention of Human Rights, incorporated in the Human Rights Act 1998, there is no requirement that the threat or use of pain should be severe for an act to fall foul of the law. Lord Goldsmith argued that because UK forces did not have full control of Iraq, the country was not part of its jurisdiction and therefore the Human Rights Act did not apply. He lost this argument when the Court of Appeal ruled that Iraqi civilians held in custody and the soldiers detaining them were subject to the Human Rights Act. The case is to be settled later this year by the House of Lords. If the Government loses then it is expected that full and independent inquiries will be held into the deaths, disappearances and torture of Iraqis by British soldiers. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ [NYTr] Dr. Laura's Little Monster Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 17:55:47 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Counterpunch - May 29, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/block05282007.html "I am My Mom's Kid" Dr. Laura's Little Monster By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK So the "kid" of "my kid's mom" appears to have grown up into a sociopath. Yes, Derek Schlessinger, beloved soldier-boy scion of talk radio's Queen of Moralizing Mean, has shown the world just what it means to be Dr. Laura's kid. It seems that 21-year-old Deryk, a United States Army special forces paratrooper recently stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, is following in his famous mom's footsteps by producing his own "show" that attempts to entertain by spewing hate, intolerance, sexism, sadism, virulent racism and casual brutality. Deryk's mom's show is on radio. Deryk's show is on Myspace. Well, it was. Unlike his mom's long run on Hate Talk Radio, Deryk's Myspace page was soon cancelled. Myspace is a website where anyone with an email address can put on a multi-media show about their favorite subject B- themselves! - complete with photos, blogs, music and video. It's censored, of course (Rupert Murdock wouldn't have it any other way); no nudity or explicit sex is allowed. However, you can run a picture of yourself sucking on the barrel of a gun, as young Deryk Schlessinger did. You can also show "cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestationa photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets," as Deryk's Myspace page featured, according to Matthew D. LaPlante who broke the story in the Salt Lake Tribune. Just as his mom's radio show is filled with fervor for war and neo-con puritanism, Deryk's Myspace blog was filled with enthusiasm for his mission: "Yes . . . FUCKING Yes!!! I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic (sic) and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't." Despite such ardent assertions of job satisfaction, The US Army is not pleased.. Army spokesman Robert Tallman has officially declared the page to be "repulsive." The blog and Myspace page were credited to and included many photographs of Deryk, including the one of him sucking on the gun like the Reverend Ted Haggard sucking on a gay hooker, with a goofy look in his eyes as he gives the thumbs up with his free hand. Speaking of which, what's with all these lunatics posing with guns in their mouths? Seung-Hui Cho, the nut that shot up Virginia Tech, just did it in his public relations video. What is the gun-in-the-mouth pose supposed to show off - their brave and heroic fellatio skills? LaPlante goes on to explain: "The Deryk Schlessinger page included nearly a dozen "friends," including a number of soldiers in Afghanistan, several of whom were linked back to Schlessinger's page and some of whom had additional photos of, and comments from, Schlessinger on their sites. "Deryk Schlessinger's Web site indicated the 21-year-old soldier is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, the site's author writes, "godless crazy people like me," have become "a generation of apathetic killers." "The site indicated Schlessinger's team has survived numerous mortar, rocket and roadside bomb attacks. It also included several graphic cartoons. In one of the stick drawings, a top-hatted man laughs as he rapes a bound and bleeding woman in front of her family. In another depiction, a man forces a boy to perform oral sex at knifepoint as the child's mother pleads for her son's life. This from the "kid" whose "mom" called gays a "biological error." What does that make her gun-sucking son? A nurtured nightmare? Dr. Laura is known for her harsh, rigidly moralistic, sex-unfriendly, anti-feminist advice, bullying style and boisterous support for the Bush administration's violent invasion and occupation of foreign lands. She preaches a strict approach to "family values" that she herself did not practice when she was young, married, cheating on her husband with Bill Ballance, the man that provided her start in radio. Bill is also the guy who took all the nude photos of Laura that are all over the web. Why did Laura switch so suddenly from being such a freewheeling swinger for women's rights to a sanctimonious "nag" cheering on a senseless war? Can you spell opportunism? Here's the story I heard around the time I was writing Being a Woman with Dr. Toni Grant, one of Laura's colleagues: When a right-wing phenomenon named Rush Limbaugh got the radio time slot before hers, and Laura saw Rush's ratings rise, she decided to go after his audience with a vengeance. She changed her politics 180 degrees, becoming the ultra-right-wing, liberal-bashing Dominatrix to the Dittohead Faithful, entertaining her vicariously sadistic audience by verbally beating up her hapless callers who didn't conform to rigidly held ideals of purity, monogamy, blind patriotism and "family values." Of course, Laura has never been one to practice what she preached, and her personal family feeling was on display when she had to claim the body of her 77-year-old mother from the LA County morgue ten days after it had been found rotting, unattended, in her apartment. Hypocrisy, shmypocrisy; "family values" proved golden for the ambitious Dr. Laura. She made millions off the slogan "I am my kid's mom." So is it any great surprise that the kid is a kind of monster? Laura sacrificed Deryk's youth on the altar of her ratings. Can you imagine how the kid of "my kid's mom" must have been teased in school? No wonder he was expelled by two different colleges before mom got the bright idea to sacrifice him yet again by sending him off to fight, kill and possibly die in Bush's War on Terror, so that she could have a fresh new slogan for her own rapacious Army: "I am the proud mother of a deployed U.S. paratrooper." Except now the "kid" is getting back at the "kid's mom." The "deployed U.S. paratrooper" is firing some serious public relations missiles at the "proud mother" Right-wing bloggers are frantically trying to defend their Mean Queen, saying it's not a parent's fault what her son does. But Dr. Laura is not just any parent. She has made a professional example of her parenthood. She is her kid's mom. She exploited this kid's very life for the sake of her ambition to rule the stay-at-home-mom culture. If any mom is responsible for her kid's behavior, this kid's mom is. Before I go on, I must confess I am not an unbiased observer of Dr. Laura's behavior. I've been feuding with the woman for over a decade, ever since she called me a "pseudo professional porn queen" in LA New Times. Ironically, this was just before her nude pictures were released on the Internet. Though I found the moniker quite amusing, I knew she didn't intend it for my amusement, but as a condemnation of me, my work and my sexuality. Therefore, I asked her to apologize; when she didn't, I placed the "Block Curse" on her and started my notorious Dr. Laura Diaries. Then of course, Laura's naked photos were released, turning her into a national laughing stock and symbol of sexual hypocrisy. Shortly after that, she lost her TV show. But she's a scrappy little miscreant. Neither the Block Curse nor the curses of millions who abhor her high-strung sanctimony has substantially shrunken her bank account. Though ridiculed or actively ignored by most thinking Americans, she retains her syndicated radio show, her cottage industry in moral diatribes and tawdry warmonger jewelry supported by her impassioned "Army" of "I am my kid's mom" T shirt wearers. I should also say that I feel personally disturbed by Deryk Schlessinger's depiction of U.S. Army officers' appalling treatment of civilians in Afghanistan, a country that I fell in love when I visited there before Deryk was born, in the days when his mom was a nude model and a liberal. Many soldiers in Dr. Laura's Army have furiously issued form letters to editors of newspapers printing stories about the "kid"'s horrifying Myspace page. They can hardly defend the contents of the page (though many of them appear to be aroused by it); so they just protest that the page might not have been the brainchild of darling Deryk, but could have been the diabolical work of the "enemy." By "enemy," do they mean Al Qaeda, pro-choice feminists, the Afghan Taliban comeback committee or progressive gay members of the ACLU? Actually, Dr. Laura's Army sees them all as the "enemy." True, Deryk hasn't thus far confessed that he created the page, and there's a slight chance that he didn't (though he obviously posed gleefully for the photos). But really, if he didn't do it, why didn't he say so as soon as the camel dung hit the pr fan? Why didn't this kid's mom's publicist put out statements by young Master Schlessinger deploring that awful ugly Myspace page and vowing that he had nothing to do with it? Don't be surprised if such denials aren't released soon. But if young Master Schlessinger were indeed the innocent victim of a bad joke by some sort of "enemy," then the natural thing would be to say so immediately, which he did not. So, he almost certainly made the page or at least helped make the page. Lest you think that Deryk only fantasies about exhibitionistic sadism, just go on the Internet and you can find a video of a young man who has been identified as Schlessinger brutally grabbing, pushing down on the ground and then kicking a female protester at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, where he was attending as a Young Republican. Getting his political career off to a riproaring start! Well, he's only following the example of his President, and he is that mom's kid. And now here he is, a high-profile special forces paratrooper in the U.S. Army, praised like a God for his "courage" every day by his famous know-it-all Mom and her Army. "I brought my son up to be a warrior," the kid's mom gushes with pride. Yes, indeed. The U.S. Army is not so supportive. The Pentagon's solution to disruptive problem children like Deryk is to shut down access to a variety of video-sharing and social networking Internet sites, including MySpace, on its computer systems worldwide. Needless to say, this will close down an important line of communications between soldiers and the outside world. It reminds me of something I heard on The Dr. Laura Schlessinger Show. A woman called in to ask what she should do about her husband looking at porn on the computer. "Throw away the computer," was Dr. Laura's advice. Obviously, both Laura and the U.S. Army are tossing the baby out with the bathwater, throwing away all of the myriad positive benefits of cyber communications, because they are afraid of what people communicate. Perhaps they are right to be afraid. Perhaps there is a spirit within poor sicko Deryk that wanted to tear off the mask of hypocrisy that his mom wears so easily. Perhaps that's why he created the Myspace page. Perhaps this is, at the risk of sounding clichC)d, a genuine cry for help. Perhaps Deryk created the page to say: Help me! I'm a scared, ironic human spirit trapped in the hard body and hard-ass mind of a rabidly militaristic, racist, sadistic, jingoistic patriot suckled by the toxic milk of my venom-spewing mom, trained by brutes to honor the bosses of the Bush Crime Family, raised to despise the weak and bully sensuous, so that I too can someday, if I survive, rule the world by force, fear and brutality. Please help me get off of the Path of Thanatos that my mom and this government have put me on, before I commit more atrocities against my fellow humans or pull the trigger on this gun in my mouth." The empathetic side of me imagines that this spirit is what propelled Deryk Schlessinger to create his appalling Myspace page. If this is indeed a cry for help, how can I, a therapist, not answer it? With this in mind, I want to offer 10 hours of free therapy to help Deryk come to terms with his abusive upbringing. Obviously, he'll need a lot more than 10 hours; but if he wants more, hey, this kid's mom can afford to pay for his therapy. But my cynical side says: Nah. Deryk created the page for the same reason that the Abu Ghraib prison guards smiled proudly and gave that same thumbs up as they took photos of themselves torturing prisoners: Deryk did it because he really thinks it's a cool think to do. He thinks its sexy. He thinks it's funny. He might think it's just "bully," as TR used to say, to be a bully. He might even think it's a smart step in his (and his ruthless mom's) path toward the U.S. Presidency. Considering the brutal antics of the current U.S. Sociopath-in-Chief, the kid might be right. [Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cable TV host and author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure. Visit her BRAND NEW BLOGGAMY & POST COMMENTS at http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/blog.asp Send comments to liberties@blockbooks.com. ] * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================